Neil Hart, group managing director, Bradley Hall Chartered Surveyors and Estate Agents
As the leading commercial and residential property firm in the North, our overall mission is to support local economy, business and communities with a full-service approach to residential and commercial property. Our vision is to work hand-in-hand with key organisations and people to support the ever-evolving built environment of our region, making it a consistently better place to live, work and socialise.
Our work extends from selling homes
to working closely with large
organisations, local authorities, housing
providers and banks, investors and more.
Our services include Commercial Agency,
Residential Agency, Valuations, Lease
Renewals and Advisory, Property
Management, Building Surveying, Land,
Development & New Homes, Mortgages
and Planning & Design from our sister
company, BH Planning & Design.
Since the appointment of our new
board of directors in 2015, our approach
to business has always been agile – so
while the climate has been challenging
since the pandemic hit, we felt well
equipped to cope. We instantly took the
decision to be more accessible for our
client needs, extending our hours of
remote availability and keeping clients up
to date with regular communications.
While Covid has shifted how many
businesses will operate, one thing is clear,
people need people and working digitally
and remotely stifles individual
professional and company growth.
Remote working helped businesses to
tick over temporarily, partly due to the
fact that many workers had already
established workplace relationships and
an understanding of their role in a real
working environment. Team members had
first-hand experience of working in their
organisations with a good understanding
of their company’s structure and systems,
as well as purpose and vision.
In many cases the dynamics were set,
the roles of the team were well
established and those who weren’t
furloughed and working from home were
well aware of what was required of them.
The real challenges of remote working come with company changes, inducting
new people into a business, company
growth and career progression and being
able to provide clear and consistent
guidance to a team. As new talent starts
to enter each industry, employees start to
move around and companies continue to
grow, it is imperative that they are given
all of the tools which equip them to play
a key role in a company, excel in their
career and learn from their peers and
managers – which is only available in a
collaborative working environment.
We are dedicated to nurturing the
next generation of talent and have
formalised this in our Talent Development
Programme, which you can read more
about on page 84.
While the hospitality and tourism
market has remained closed for much of
the past year, it is thought that pent up
demand for a break away from home,
restrictions on international travel and a
renewed interest in the great outdoors of
the UK means that a domestic tourism
boom is on the horizon. Holidays abroad
as we know them may not return to preCovid normality until 2024, and the
limited options available to the public
have encouraged people to look closer to
home, with the expansion of operators
paying testament to this. Our friends and
clients at The Inn Collection Group have
been successful on their ambitious
acquisition campaign, resulting in the
addition of several of its famous ‘pubs
with rooms’ to its portfolio across
Northumberland, the Lake District,
Yorkshire, Wearside, and County Durham.
The firm now looks to recruit a further
200 people to its team.
When it comes to our cities and the
evolving built environment which drives
forward direct, indirect and induced
economic progress – the North has
remained resilient, ambitious and prolific.
Development in our cities continues as we
look forward to pushing on with the North
becoming an even more vibrant and
prosperous environment to live, work and
play.
In Newcastle city centre, the
regeneration of Pilgrim Street will provide
important rejuvenation in the heart of the
region’s capital. The plans from Taras
Properties, the development vehicle of
the Reuben brothers, will provide a
catalyst for the wider transformation of
East Pilgrim Street to replace dilapidated
buildings with news offices, bars,
restaurants and more.
We were proud to recently play a part
in this transformation, facilitating the sale
of Yorkshire Chambers, a 22,000 sq ft
office building based on 112-118 Pilgrim
Street, which has been purchased by local
businessman Andrew Ward. Following the
completion of the multi-million-pound
deal the offices will undergo a significant
investment in its refurbishment. The
purchase of Yorkshire Chambers has
become another significant step in the
regeneration of our city centre. This area
is set to be a bustling hub for business and
hospitality and will inject further life into
our vibrant city following a challenging
time.
Meanwhile in Sunderland, its highways
scheme is reported to provide £17.1m
boost for local SMEs, which is set to rise
to £21.6m as the project nears
completion. The Riverside Sunderland
transformation project, a 33.2 hectacres
development which spans the River Wear continues to move forward with more
than £150m worth of investment
currently on site which will total £350m
by the end of the summer.
The last Portfolio front cover was
dedicated to the environmentally friendly
and technologically advanced 1000 home
development which is a key part of the
Riverside Sunderland project. The
development will create homes for 2,500
people across four communities and are
set to be showcased at the Sunderland
Future Living Expo in 2023.
Moving onto the retail sector, The
Office for National Statistics recently
disclosed that throughout March, a
month in which there was only a modest
relaxation of the curbs imposed across the
UK to stop the spread of Covid-19, that
retail sales rose by 5.4%. The most recent
statistics available at the time of
publishing indicate a higher than expected
increase, which was predicted to be 1.5%,
with sales in March 1.6% higher than they
were before the pandemic began to have
an impact on the economy in February 2020. This boost is certainly a positive
indicator of what could be to come.
March’s robust increase in retail sales
showed that the economy is moving
forward even before the reopening of the
none-essential shops. The UK is creating a
significant recovery drive heading into the
summer months. Declining case numbers
and the success of the vaccine roll out has
encouraged a confidence in ‘getting back
to the new normal’. A positive, yet still
cautious, sentiment rolls out across the
North, back up by information from
research firm GfK which recently revealed
that consumer confidence was now at its
highest level since before April 2020.
The success of our local retail sector,
and similarly in hospitality, has certainly
been thanks to innovation and adapting to
the market from operators. Consumers no
longer simply want to buy, they want
experiences and to come away with a
sense of added value. Operators like
STACK Newcastle and Seaburn have
created retail and leisure experiences for
visitors to enjoy – and are now reaping
the rewards as two of the most popular
destinations in the region.
In the residential property market,
official data from HMRC showed a recordhigh 180,690 transactions recorded
during March, which is double the total in
March last year. Separate figures from the
Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows
that high demand is placing upward
pressure on property values, with the UK average house price increasing by 8.6% over the year to February.
A significant factor in the heightened
activity in the residential market would
certainly be The Stamp Duty holiday,
which continued to fuel the increase in
house prices. The government’s mortgage
guarantee scheme will push demand
higher as it attracts first-time buyers back
to the market. There has been some
nervousness regarding an anticipated
price correction hurtling towards us like a
steam train, however, the heightened
demand should ensure that this doesn’t
happen.
While we’ve worked incredibly hard on
behalf of our clients throughout the
pandemic and have been fortunate
enough to be able to persevere
throughout, we’re genuinely excited to be
experiencing the forward movement in
our economy and heightened activity
which will allow us to continue our vision
and mission. We’re all sick of saying and
hearing it – but the last year has been a
challenge on a multitude of levels, but
thanks to the dedication and tenacity of
our local business community we know
that our economy can recover.
